


someone that loves you

by Queenjoker



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, I swear, Multi, Red String of Fate, it WAS suppose to be only fluff but angst wormed itself into the plot, kaito is ace because fuck it it makes sense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-18
Updated: 2018-11-18
Packaged: 2019-08-25 10:10:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16659191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queenjoker/pseuds/Queenjoker
Summary: For as long as he could remember, Shuichi had always been privy to the fabled old thing that was said to tie others with their fated one. And not once, did he ever feel grateful for the gift that made a wreck of his life.





	someone that loves you

The thing with soulmates nowadays, is that not a lot of people had much faith on it anymore.

It’s a thing of fiction. A worn-out trope. _Unrealistic_.

Shuichi’s has heard all the arguments for it for most of his life. He’s heard the pros and the cons. He’s had the lengthy, in-depth conversations with his co-worker and childhood friend, Maki, about its sheer impossibility.

_(“Do you believe in love?” he asks, only to receive the full force of her glare across the table._

_“Do you believe in the pain the follows a punch? Don’t ask stupid questions.”)_

He’s endured his classmate’s, Angie’s, hours-long lecture and not-so-subtle praise of it. (And her even less subtle attempts at making donate blood for her cause.) He’s been through pages upon pages of research papers and online threads on that very subject. And yet.

At age 18, Shuichi still doesn’t know where he stands.

Because as inconceivable as it was, Shuichi could see _it_ —The red string of fate.

For as long as he could remember, he had always been privy to the fabled old thing that was said to tie others with their fated one. At first, he didn’t really have much of a clue as to what the string was, but he knew well enough that it was something special to him and him alone. After all, none of the other kids ever seem to mind the random string that circled their pinkies.

Hell, it didn’t even seem _solid_ to anyone else but him. He can grasp it if he concentrates, but for the most part he passes through them just like everyone else. It certainly didn’t look like something that could change a person’s life entirely.

Which is why, when he brought it up, (after hearing a story in school about red strings, true love, and whatnot), he couldn’t understand his parents look of confusion.

Or why their strings weren’t connected to each other.

It was a mess in the Saihara household after that. Days of fighting, of giving each other the cold-shoulder, of dinners spent individually, went on and on and _on_. He remembers the guilt that settled down in his stomach, like some awful monster that decided its new home in him, that grew with each morning he woke up to their yelling.

He remembers the cold stares of both his parents on him, of the looks that said that this could have all been avoided.

If only he hadn’t asked. If only he couldn’t see the strings. If only he just didn’t speak at _all_. If, if, _if_ —

Sometimes he swears it couldn’t have been just a year, surely not. Because by the time his parents finally decide to separate, Shuichi felt like an entirely different person. He stutters in conversations, and hides behind a hat that never leaves his head anymore. People began writing him off as silent, reserved, avoiding others like he’s the Devil himself and the mere thought of interacting with another human being was a cross that would burn him alive.

In the end, his mother takes him to move in with his uncle, and his father has another woman in their old house within a week. The last time Shuichi saw him, he saw the red string that tied their pinkies to one another, clear as day. Their glowing smiles didn’t sting him as much as the sight of the red string did.

His mother finds someone too, eventually, and tries her best to avoid Shuichi as much as possible. Shuichi wasn’t dumb. He was young and sensitive, and took after his detective uncle much more than he ever did with either of his parents. He knew his mother must have feared a repeat of his father.

She avoids Shuichi like one look alone from him would devastate her entire relationship.

After three months of dating, the two ‘lovebirds’ are decidedly filled with wanderlust and take flight overseas on something like a prolonged honeymoon. She leaves him at his uncle’s care with nothing more than a monthly allowance and a post card every now and then.

It doesn’t take a detective to figure out how unwanted he’d become to his own parents in his own eyes.

So.

Does he believe in love?

Well, jury’s still out on that one.

 

* * *

 

He’s made observations of the red string through the years. Several, in fact, and he records them all in a small notebook that is definitely not a diary.

**Observation #1:** _No one is connected to their partner from the get-go._

It’s pretty easy to take note of this one, especially when they were all kids. All of them had nothing more than an inch of red string on their pinkies back then, and for the most part, it stayed like that until later on in life. In a way, it’s a relief to know that everyone more or less starts with a clean bill.

And so, for the most part, Shuichi watches everyone stumble.

He watches them stumble in and out of love like it’s some kind of speed-dating session gone wildly out of control, complete with no time limit and with over a billion candidates to meet.

To put it simply, it’s a goddamn _mess_.

Sometimes, if he reflects on it enough, he swears he can almost hear the mocking ‘ _good-luck_ ’ of whatever higher being is hell-bent on making them go through with all this nonsense.

Because honestly, _why bother?_

Why make them slip through all these other possibilities if they didn’t have the choice in the end? Why make people waste time on others that weren’t their fated partners in the first place? Why make them spend years on something that wouldn’t be true in the end?

~~Why give birth to mistakes like Shuichi?~~

He yells these questions to absolutely no one but his own notebook because he knows better than to ever share anything about his ability. He knows that people won’t ever believe him and that their looks won’t leave him no matter what he says anyway.

Now and then, if he wants to focus on the few positives, he reminds himself that his ability can be seen as a bit of perk in his line of work as a detective. Infidelity cases are definitely easier when he can see the sources of these people’s actions and can deal with it directly.

His uncle, at the very least, seems grateful for Shuichi’s help. Especially when it takes up most of their clientele.

He’s been a witness to countless of people declaring their undying love to one another, proclaiming the zero possibility of them ever seeing anyone else, and truth be told, only years of experience and his hat keeps him from making a derisive remark on how their so-called loved one was already tied to somebody else.

It takes even more for him to not think how similar some of his clients are to his own parents.

He hides himself in the comfort of Kaito’s house when nothing else is enough to hide the facts from himself, and only through the presence of both Kaito and Maki (who always ends up coming over whenever Shuichi visits.) helps remind him of the good in the world.

 

 

**Observation #2:** _Sometimes people don’t have any strings. At all._

Contrary to popular belief, he meets Maki long before he ever meets Kaito.

Though they weren’t close to anything resembling friends back then, they had gone to the same elementary school. Maki, like most of his classmates, had the unfortunate privilege of seeing the transformation of the before and after of Saihara Shuichi.

Much to everyone’s surprise whenever he brings it up, Maki was the popular one. Not that she liked it, of course, as she constantly points out afterwards.

Despite her cold demeanor, kids in their school had always gravitated towards Maki, acting as if she was everyone’s big sister. Not a day passed when she wasn’t followed by a babble of kids, like ducklings following their guardian. Shuichi, on the other hand, remained largely alone for most of his school years, and even more so after his parents’ divorce.

Still, she cared. She cared in her own, Maki-like way.

She always made sure none of the other kids ever bothered him, calling them back to her side whenever they started to take note of him, and was never one to hold back from glaring down anybody that tried to mess with his hat.

Only once did Maki ever approach him herself.

It starts during classroom, when a multitude of feelings takes Shuichi by surprise. Immediately, he knows this will be one of _those days_ , filled with the tell-tale signs of the uncontrollable shaking and uneven breathing of a panic attack. He doesn’t bother with asking for permission and simply leaves the room while his legs can still move.

He hides himself somewhere in the back of the school and had been sitting there for God-knows how long when he first sees Maki coming. He wants nothing more than to run on sight, but couldn’t find any strength left to move his legs. Resigned, he hugs his knees closer and hopes she simply walks away or call for an adult.

She doesn’t do either and instead stays.

Maki stares at him for only a couple of seconds more before continuing, determination growing in her steps. As she reaches him, he sees that she’s brought along two lunchboxes, one of which was his own that he left in class. Somewhere in the recesses of his mind it clicks that he must have missed lunchtime already.

She sits herself down beside him, and slides his lunchbox to his side. Even now, Shuichi can still recall Maki’s voice from the time, and how clear it had been.

“Breathe,” she articulates, words careful but firm, “it’s _OK_.”

And he grabs onto those few words that she repeats until the shaking stops, until he can uncurl himself from the ball he’s made of his body and look back at her. She’s halfway through her lunch and he suspects she’s been eating slower on purpose to give him more time but doesn’t say anything about it. He doesn’t do anything else but reach for his own lunch and begin mechanically eating as well.

The day ends with neither one of them going back to their classes and they go their separate ways. He tells himself he’s imagining things when the feeling of somebody’s stare on his back hits him as he walks home with his uncle.

They exchange nothing more beyond pleasantries after that, save for graduation day when Shuichi finally walks up to Maki and meekly gives her his thanks. She nods, seeming to understand the meaning behind his words, and if he’s being indulgent, maybe even gives him a small smile before walking away with the group of kids she always goes home with.

It’s nothing short of a relief to the boy when he learns that they would be going to the same middle school. At first.

But when the first year comes and goes with no chance to meet up with Maki, Shuichi loses a bit of his shaky confidence. The second year follows a similar pattern of the first and before he knows it, he’s withdrawn back to his old self.

By the third year, Shuichi’s grown to his role of being a loner and barely avoids reprimands from his teachers for still wearing a hat in school. He’s become an easy target for it and it’s not long till Shuichi is back to his days of eating alone and finding little niches around school to hide from the bullies.

It’s no wonder, then, that Shuichi had been in absolute shock when he first meets Momota Kaito, self-proclaimed Luminary of the Stars.

Kaito was tall for a middle schooler, often being mistaken for high schooler instead, and was known as a somewhat loveable idiot in their class. Still, despite his cheerful disposition, the other boy was used to receiving admonishments of his own for violating the very same dress code, resolutely wearing his own customized version of the school jacket that had a galaxy pattern on the inside. But whereas Shuichi’s hat contributed to his isolation and baseless gossip, Kaito’s actions had a charm that made anyone he came by a friend.

So, while he was no stranger to Kaito himself, he was by no means at all prepared for the sight of Kaito kicking the door open to one of the unused classrooms that Shuichi usually hid himself in.

His first reaction was to freeze up, mentally gathering himself for whatever the other boy had planned for him. Though not inherently threatening, Kaito had already been in a number of known fights throughout school. Shuichi had very little confidence in putting up much resistance if it came to something like that.

But instead of a fight, of their fists exchanging between them, the other boy lights up at the sight of Shuichi. “There you are!”

“Huh?”

Shuichi deflates a bit, taken aback by the shine in Kaito’s eyes, and only tenses up again when Kaito takes hold of his hand.

“You’re eating with us today!” Kaito exclaims, as if it was predetermined and thus irrefutable. Not that Shuichi had much of a complaint to give, dazed as he was by the time Kaito manages to drag his sorry butt outside of school.

But what really struck Shuichi, as he does so, is the sight of the other boy’s hand’s that grips his own and remains string-free no matter how many times he blinks at it.

_What the…_

“Makiroll! Here he is, in the flesh!” is all Kaito says as a way of introduction between Shuichi and the girl Kaito brings them to, one whose sight alone makes Shuichi jump in his seat. The red eyes, reminiscent of a childhood he had tried to forget, bore into him.  

“Hi…Harukawa-san.”

In stark contrast to her popularity during their elementary school years, middle school Maki had no group squabbling after her now.

Now her blunt personality is taken at face value and interpreted as hostility. More often than not, she’s known for having an aura of overwhelming frostiness that no other middle schooler, save for most cheerful of them all, would ever brave approaching. And even though Shuichi, of all people, should know better than to ever think the same as the others, he flinches at her look.

Her chopsticks pause as she stares at Shuichi for a good full minute—and for that minute alone, he wonders if she could see something on him like he could on everyone else—before nodding back at him. “Saihara.”

The wave of relief comes almost instantly and he feels somehow lighter than he’s felt in years.

At that, Kaito settles between them, an air of a job well-done around him, and he starts eating into his own lunch, as if Shuichi had always been a part of their group. Shuichi blinks then, at the two of them, at a world outside of the red thread he’s been missing out on, and he thinks maybe life still has a couple of surprises for him after all.

His stares move consistently between Maki, with her sharp movements and sharper words at both of them, and Kaito, whose hands still bore no string, impossibly, despite his technical charm. The two of them argue (converse?) like an old comedy routine, and somehow it suits the two middle schoolers perfectly.

Surely, he thinks then, these two didn’t need someone like Shuichi Saihara in their lives?

The thought stays with him all through lunch, until the three of them disperse to go back to their classes. Kaito sticks to his side and talks his ears off about the skies and stars all the way back to their homeroom, and Shuichi is stuck feeling he’s somehow unlocked a weird event for that day, and that day alone.

Yet, in the end, Kaito succeeds in bringing Shuichi back to their table for lunch for nearly every day of the week, his weak excuses be damned.

It’s not till weeks later, when he’s been made a permanent figure in their friend group, already joining them in work-outs outside of school, that Kaito admits that Maki had been just as worried for him as Kaito was. How he had noticed the girl staring at Shuichi’s direction from time to time when they were hanging out, and how peculiar it was when she tried to vehemently deny it.

Shuichi’s face warms at his words, and he thinks he’s kind of in love with both of them. A kind of _in-love_ that pulls at his chest, despite having no red string attached to either one of his friends.

He learns throughout the year how someone like Momota Kaito would never let himself be bound to Earth. _Of course._ Especially not by some fancies of love and romance from any red string of fate. Not when the call of space travel had him by its grips and siren sings him to the path of becoming an astronaut.

This is made abundantly clear by the third time he’s turned down a confession and he comes back to them with an obvious mark of a slap on his cheek.

Kaito tells the two of them later on that he doesn’t see any need beyond the friendships he’s made with Maki and Shuichi, which gets a blush from both of them. They blush even more so when he initiates another group hug and takes them under the galactic skies that is tailored in the insides of his jacket, voicing to them that they’ll always have each other as long as they shared the same stars to look up to.

Kaito is such a sap sometimes, they’re almost sorry in the knowledge that he’ll probably still be a heartbreaker in the foreseeable future.

 

 

**Observation #3:** _Some people can have more than one partner._

When high school rolls around, Shuichi learns that the red string is far more open-minded than he first gave it credit for.

He watches from afar a group of seniors whose strings are intricately tied with one another and who never seem too far from each other. His eyes wander over them because they’re a weird bunch, even for the school’s standard for their seniors (and that’s saying a lot considering one of them apparently had ties to the yakuza).

They seemed like a group of people that shouldn’t have anything in common at all and yet, without fail, the three of them always found a way to be together. At first he thinks he’s mistaken, surely imagining their shared threads or simply not seeing the fourth person in their group.

However, when he gets around to asking the others in school, he learns he’s not wrong, nor is he alone in his curiosity.

When he manages to talk to one of them, an upperclassman with heterochromatic eyes of green and red, he learns that they’re not so different from his own group of friends, if only crazier (somehow).

It’s not till the fifth time they’ve get together does Shuichi brave asking more about the other two friends. Shuichi tells himself that this is for research, that he needs to know all he can about this red string of fate, and not (he swears) because he’s intensely curious like the rest of the student body is as to whether or not the three of them were actually dating.

Hinata Hajime, to his credit, blinks only once before laughing good-naturedly.

“Ah, you mean Chiaki and Nagito, right?”

Shuichi ducks a bit under his hat, the other boy’s smile far too bright to keep eye-contact. “Well, yes. You _are_ the closest to them.”

“I suppose,” and at this Shuichi blinks again. “More like, I’m the only other one that can deal with them both. They’re a handful!”

He goes on to share stories, like of their impromptu slumber parties because one of them always fell asleep at the weirdest times and the other lived in a mansion with more than enough bedrooms for at least fifty people, and the wild school trip they take with the rest of their class to an island each year. They’re an absolute train wreck, Hajime confesses.

‘ _But you love them, nonetheless_ ,’ Shuichi assesses, as he catches the fond look that washes over the senior at the talk of them. He gets similar responses from the other two friends in question, even when one of them falls asleep halfway through their conversation, while the other gives a string of self-depreciating comments about himself before admitting much about the same.

The three of them graduate and apparently get into different schools. When Shuichi asks how Hajime felt about their situation, he doesn’t hesitate one bit. “I’m sure we’ll still be together, somehow. I don’t think they’ll ever let me off that easy.” He laughs again, and with such confidence that Shuichi almost wants to tell him that he’s right.

The red string guarantees that for all three of them and for once, he’s happy to know that the three of them really will be together no matter what.

 

 

**Observation #4** : _The timing of the connection varies from person to person._

As freshman year of college begins, Shuichi is once again a ball of nerves and anxiety. A terrible combination that he’s all too familiar with.

Unsurprising, considering how high school had been so much easier with his friends close by to fall back on. Hell, at some point during their second-year, Kaito and Maki had even talked him into taking off his hat for once, and for the duration of their time in high school, Shuichi was content to looking others in the eye. It’s something of a good revelation to Hajime, who he still keeps in touch with, and tells Shuichi that it’s a good look for him, ever the oblivious flatterer.

He takes new things with more confidence now, even when graduation comes and goes for them.

Therefore, the news of their separation in college is hardly news at all by the time they tell each other of their choices.

Out of their friend group, only Kaito ends up going to an entirely different school, one that caters to engineers and other majors fit for the young astronaut-to-be. Maki and him, on the other hand, both end up applying for the same school, with her going for law while he applies for criminal justice. They choose apartments nearby each other and plan meet-ups with Kaito once every two weeks whenever their schedules allow them to.

Kaito is quick to tell them tales of his new friends and classmates in his school, spouting out names like Iruma Miu and Idabashi Kiibo, who are apparently something akin to geniuses in their respective majors, despite the destruction they cause from time to time in their department. He tells them how he even bumped into one of their old upperclassmen, Souda-senpai, and how he’s made himself rather infamous on their campus—to which they all groan and roll their eyes at, because they’ve more or less expected this of him.

Maki and Shuichi, in turn, share their own experiences thus far. Maki tells them how she’s joined the school’s Aikido club, taught by an energetic girl that teaches exclusively to women and how she’s building more and more muscle. (This makes Kaito exclaim how he’s been keeping up his own exercises as well, and the two look at Shuichi with expectant faces until he concedes that he’ll find a way to continue his morning jogs at the very least.)

Shuichi expresses how challenging some of his classes are, and rightly so. Especially when someone like Tojo Kirumi continues to surpass all expectations, and at this Maki sourly agrees, sharing some of her own classes with the multi-talented girl.

He doesn’t tell them, however, of a night program he recently joined, courtesy of Angie’s help. One specifically for helping people with their public speaking skills.

Which means he doesn’t get to tell them of a little girl who, much like him, prefers to hide behind a hat for most her life. Even if hers is something straight out of a Halloween store, pointed tip and all. He can’t be one to judge, though, considering how he’s secretly started wearing his own hat again and only takes it off when he knows Maki might see him.

No, he supposes. He’ll share that tidbit for later in the semester.

And as much as things change, some remain just the same.

His mother and her boyfriend are still overseas, still sending him money (because, evidently, Mystery Man is loaded and doesn’t mind sharing his inheritance moolah with someone like Shuichi.). Both Maki and him still haven’t had their connections, and he relishes in the fact that he at least doesn’t have to suffer through awkward romantic situations with either one of his best friends anytime soon. He brings with him some folders concerning minor cases that his uncle allows him to work on while in school to get more hours and experience, with the stern affirmation that school would still always come first no matter what.

All in all, everything is more or less manageable. Kind of.

College is filled with varying amounts of people spanning different ages, and at times Shuichi gets lost in trying to navigate through the amount of red strings that comes into his view. It was easier before, when most of those around him haven’t been connected yet, but now he wakes up to a tangled mess of threads every day and he has to mentally remind himself that nobody else can see it. That it isn’t solid if he doesn’t think about it too much.

It’s when he’s trying to not trip over these very threads that he meets _her_.

And of course by ‘meet’, he means he trips over his own steps, slamming straight onto the ground lamely by Akamatsu Kaede’s feet.

_Smooth._

Shuichi barely registers her shout of “Oh! Hey!” as he tries to hide away the pain that immediately shoots throughout his body.

“Kaede! Be careful! This could be a trap!” another girl shouts by his side. Before he can even defend himself, because how injuring himself could ever be considered as a trap is beyond him, he sees somebody squat before him.

“I honestly don’t think that’s the case, Tenko. Besides, he’s bleeding!”

He hears the other girl mumble, “ _Not nearly enough_ ,” as Shuichi vaguely wipes at the blood dripping from his face, not really recognizing it as his for a second.

“Oh,” he hears himself say as the girl in front of him laughs a bit.

“‘Oh’ is right! You should get that checked!”

He blinks at her words, at the underlying sense of worry in them and think it sweet for her to care for a stranger like him. He also knows, even as the words come out him, that he should probably take her advice.

“I have class.”

The two girls look at him like he might have hit his head too hard and look thoroughly unconvinced. Still, he waves them off as he stands up, grabbing for a tissue from the small pack he has in his bag. “It’s…ok. It should just be a simple nosebleed. I’m sure it’ll stop in a couple minutes.”

While the other girl, Tenko, seems very much willing to let him go at this point, the one before him hums a bit before turning swiftly back to grab a hold of his shoulders. Shuichi teeters a bit on his feet by the movement and the stare she gives him. “Ok, but you should know, if I find out that you fainted during your class, it will _literally_ haunt me for the rest of the day. So you better heal up fast!”

He stares back at her lavender eyes, and something rises from his chest that makes his next words tumble out casually. “Only for a day?”

Tenko looks ready to pummel him at his reply, mumbling something about him being an immoral male fishing for compliments, but Kaede simply takes back her hands and laughs again, a sound that shakes him up even more than his recent stumble.

“Only for a day. Because after that I’ll probably be apologizing to your face as soon as possible.” She hands him his hat that he hadn’t noticed he’s dropped and smiles once more. “If you haven’t sued me by then, I suppose.”

Shuichi smiles too, feeling his face heat up, and he vaguely wonders if he’s sick instead. “I promise I won’t. We’re all broke anyway.”

“Ha! Ain’t that the truth!”

With that they part ways, with Tenko practically dragging Kaede away from him like he’s some kind of criminal that she’s officially added to her hit list. He should take offense, he guesses, but instead his eyes wonder over to Kaede’s hands in Tenko’s and takes note of the short unconnected string around her pinky.

He spends the rest of the day mulling over their short interaction, already knowing it’s something he’ll bring up to his best friends later that day. He categorizes the moment in his mind under ‘things that will probably never happen again’, and he tries to ignore the pang in his heart at the thought.

It’s not until a week later, when he gets dragged to one of Angie’s art shows, who is one of the speakers at his nightly program, that they see each other again and for once, Shuichi is glad he’s been proven wrong.

They stick together for the rest of the night, conversing back and forth about the displayed art works, but mostly about Angie’s, who they find out is a mutual friend for both of them. One of her art pieces is a gigantic wooden statue that spills out red liquid from its eyes and mouth that looks suspiciously like blood, but to which Angie reassures them is nothing more than punch.

When no one else is looking, though, she motions them closer and tells them that it is, however, spiked and they are free to take a sip of it every now and then. Kaede and Shuichi both exchange looks with less than confident smiles as they tell the artist they’ll think on it.

They wait until Angie is out of earshot for Kaede to turn to Shuichi with a worried look. “Is she allowed to do that?”

Shuichi shrugs, looking back at the crowd gathering around the stature. “Well…she’s not actively serving it and technically, it _is_ part of her display.”

Kaede’s eyes widen as she shakes her head. “That’s art for you.”

Shuichi takes it up a notch with “That’s _Angie_ for you,” and they laugh behind their hands, like kids trying to stay professional.

By the end of the night, he learns that Kaede is a pianist and that she comes to these events pretty often in order to support the art department, in the same way most art majors went to the music department’s concerts. Shuichi confesses that he was simply dragged here because of his connection with Angie from the program, though he does make a note to attend more in the future regardless if Angie forces him or not.

“We should exchange numbers, then!” Kaede voices, slapping Shuichi hard on the shoulder. “Maybe we can go together to some of them.”

Shuichi barely manages a reply before Kaede shoves her phone into his hands to input his number and not a minute later has her doing the same on his.

By the time he gets back to his place, they’ve texted each other at least thirty messages already and falls asleep doing much about the same.

He wakes up the next morning with a feeling that the entirety of last night might have been made-up, a hallucination far more creative than he would ever give himself credit for. He even wonders if maybe he _did_ take up Angie on her offer of the spiked punch, but when his phone buzzes with a text from someone besides his usual group of friends he ends up staring at his ceiling for a considerable amount of time with a smile on his face.

A feeling in his chest grows too—one so different from the monstrous guilt from his parents’ divorce—and every day since then, it’s twisted his heart in ways he can’t quite describe.

So he doesn’t dwell on it much when he ends up blushing more easily around Kaede during the few times they catch each other just before their classes. Or as to why he’s effortlessly convinced of taking his hat off once more, when Kaede expresses to him that she likes looking him in the eyes during their talks.

In a matter of weeks, they’re as close as he is with both Maki and Kaito.

They talk about anything and everything during their times together. When she informs him of her younger twin sister, Shuichi almost doesn’t believe her, even as she shows him a picture. He’s even more doubtful when she describes how apathetic the other Akamatsu girl is and how some of her favorite stuff included the murder mystery genre of the most gruesome sort.

“They’re pretty hardcore stuff,” Kaede explains, sounding like she’s split between being proud and being worried for her sister. “This one game franchise she likes even has some really graphic executions for the accused!”

_“Executions?!_ And they target these to kids? _”_

It’s the complete opposite of the bubbly girl before Shuichi and all Kaede does is shrug with a fond smile.

In return he describes his somewhat weird family situation and how technically he hasn’t seen his mom in nearly a decade outside of the postcards she sends back. He avoids the ‘why’ as much as possible and inwardly sighs out of relief when Kaede doesn’t push the topic, instead focusing on his uncle’s detective firm and the cases he’s been on.

As he finishes going over the mundanity of actual detective work, Kaede hums, seemingly deep in thought.

“Are you alright, though, Shuichi?” she asks suddenly, looking straight at him, “A lot of those cases sound…well, pretty rough. Especially the infidelity ones.”

There’s a hesitance in her words that makes Shuichi pause, considering how Kaede was someone that usually talked with confidence. It takes him only a second longer to fully grasp the meaning behind her careful words.

‘ _Oh. Duh.’_

After all, bringing the cases up right after the insinuation of his parent’s separation should make anyone wonder the same. But he’s talked about it so nonchalantly for years that he’s never really considered how others might see his situation as. Maki and Kaito had always seemingly known his background and never needed to ask much, and even fewer people had ever tried to ask him about it in detail.

_Are you alright?_

It takes him a minute to reply as his fingers twitch to pull down the cap of a hat he no longer wears.

“If you’re asking if it ever influenced my view on romance well…I suppose not.” It isn’t a lie, not really. If you think about it, his view on romance had been skewed long before he ever started working with his uncle. However, when Shuichi looks back at Kaede, he knows she must have seen something behind his own words, and he shifts uneasily in his seat. Did she see through his lie?

He’s halfway through thinking of an explanation when she breaks his frantic thoughts.

“I mean. Just because you see it all the time, you shouldn’t think it’s ok, got it? Cheating is bad no matter what!”

He shakes his head slowly in reply, slightly taken back by the direction she took the conversation. But when the look she gives him only grows angrier, he shakes his head even more in earnest. “Never! I would never do something so dishonest!”

Kaede looks him over in contemplation before nodding and crossing her arms. “Good! Yeah, I don’t think you’re the type to do something like that.”

Shuichi would have laughed, then, if he didn't feel such a wreck at the slight interrogation at the end. He isn't used to being on the opposite side of things.

When they part ways again, classes domineering their overall schedule, Shuichi sighs, relief shaking through him. For all the lies he's told in his life, he's glad that there's still enough sincerity in him that makes people like Kaede believe in him. A version him not ruined by the strings he's grown up with. 

**Author's Note:**

> here i go again, starting a different project orz
> 
> also, ive always hc kaito as a space ace, i'm glad ill be able to write him as one in here. hope u guys don't mind too much ^^;


End file.
